Colorado rounded out their East Coast road trip with a final stop in Buffalo this afternoon.
After a difficult outing in Pittsburgh, the Avs hoped to get back on track. They were kept off the scoresheet against the Pens, so they needed to break through the drought to start feeling like themselves again.
Unfortunately, their scoring woes persisted. The Avs dropped their second-straight game in another shutout loss 4-0.
The first few shifts of the game were electric. Buffalo met them with a few good shifts of their own, and the Avs were shaken off course and couldn’t come back.
Alexandar Georgiev earned his eighth consecutive start. On a few of those good shifts from the Sabres early, he looked dialed in.
The momentum really shifted after the opening ten minutes.
A failed passing entry led to a turnover and rush opportunity. Josh Manson tried to pass the puck to Miles Wood at the offensive blueline and prepared to take off deep into the Sabres’ end.
Jeff Skinner took the puck through the neutral zone with JJ Peterka opposite him.
Manson was too far gone to get back in time, and Jack Johnson and Tomas Tatar tried to defend. Peterka’s initial shot was successfully blocked by Johnson’s skate, but Peterka retrieved it and beat Georgiev stick-side. This took a lot of wind out of their sails.
A late penalty kill and a split powerplay opportunity at the end of the first captured the weird, afternoon essence. Georgiev did have an incredible save on a Grade A chance from Henri Jokiharju near its end.
Without any goal support through six periods, it’s hard to zero-in on Georgiev’s individual performance. He can’t steal a game if there isn’t anything to steal.
The Avs received a second split powerplay chance at the end of the second and another powerplay with six seconds left in the third period.
Coming out of the first period, Buffalo outshot the Avs 11-6.
In the second period, it was a bit of the same. There continued to be serious execution issues.
They fought the puck and found themselves chasing this game. As the deficit grew, their patience waned and they cheated plays looking for the instant fix. Instead, pucks were sent into skates leading to broken plays after just the first or second touch. They struggles to establish the zone.
It didn’t help that Buffalo added a second goal early. What started as a harmless play in the offensive zone caught the Avs in transition. Cale Makar was deep in the play and the puck rimmed around the boards. MacKinnon skated off for a line change and the Sabres rushed in on a two-on-one against Devon Toews.
Casey Mittelstadt took the shot and knocked the puck in off Georgiev’s shoulder.
Near the midway point, Bo Byram had a nice stick-check on Tyson Jost to deny the initial entry, but Alex Tuch had another look at it. Tuch passed the puck behind him to Jost in the slot, and Jost one-timed it down the middle to make it 3-0.
Later on a powerplay chance, Makar went to grab the puck behind the goal line in his own end to reset. Kyle Okposo chased him down and gave Makar a shove to his hip. Given the distance from the boards, Makar was shaken off-balance and crashed into the boards awkwardly – particularly on his right leg.
He skated off of his own volition but didn’t put much weight on his right side, testing it gingerly.
He did eventually return for the third period, but there was no call on the play and Nathan MacKinnon was understandably upset.
After Makar left the second period down the tunnel, MacKinnon let the officials know he was upset by the non-call. As an alternate captain, that is his right.
He was sent to the locker room for unsportsmanlike conduct on a two-and-ten penalty that kept him out until late into the third period.
In the third period, Colorado didn’t look completely defeated but the mountain to climb in front of them was a three goal deficit and concern surrounding Makar at its start.
As mentioned, Makar and MacKinnon did return. Makar took six complete shifts in the final period and MacKinnon returned after serving his misconduct penalty.
With three minutes remaining, Colorado pulled Georgiev for the extra skater. A lost faceoff in the offensive zone allowed Rasmus Dahlin to send the puck down the ice into the empty net.
The shots finished 29-23 in favor of Buffalo. Colorado had six* powerplay opportunities and did not score on any of them. They generated seven total shots on net with the man-advantage which is almost unfathomable *even if the sixth powerplay was so late into the third period that it didn’t really count. In a vacuum, the troubles of the powerplay through two games kind of captures the troubles of the team right now.
Their passes weren’t connecting, they were overthinking and overcomplicating.
Like the Pittsburgh game, the best line tonight was the fourth line made up of Fredrik Olofsson, Logan O’Connor, and Andrew Cogliano. You can’t cheat honest hard work and that line doesn’t cut corners.
They’re consistent and predictable. Unfortunately that doesn’t translate to much scoring, but it does translate to better possession and fewer mistakes.
The penalty kill is an extension of that group and remained steady. They held the Sabres to seven shots through three kills.
Buffalo also defended this game very well. Colorado has 23 shot attempts blocked in addition to their 23 on net. Buffalo blocked 21 shots and the blocks came from 13 different skaters.
The Sabres received solid goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen too.
Colorado’s stars lacked cohesion. There’s a reason O’Connor said their success starts with the players at the top. You want to see some secondary scoring when the stars struggle, but so much of the team does feed off of the top of the lineup.
Their proven skills and the first six games tells us that this is a bit of an anomaly. Perhaps they’re gripping their sticks a bit too tightly.
Bednar continued to blend the top-six in search of the winning formula, but nothing proved to be the anecdote. MacKinnon and Rantanen were reunited. Jonathan Drouin briefly returned to MacKinnon and Ryan Johansen’s wing.
The reality is, the path to a Cup is rarely 16-0. So inside the regular season, losing is an important lesson. Chasing games is an important lesson and building chemistry takes time. Even players who’ve played together – like MacKinnon and Rantanen – need to unplug and turn it back on again.
It’s best to get these things out of the way now and leave these games in the Eastern time zone.
On the discussion of hard work in relation to the fourth line, it’s important to note that the Avs as a whole aren’t playing lazily even if they’ve been caught looking for a shortcut in the o-zone here and there.
They were heavy-hitters this afternoon with 22 hits made up of 13 different skaters. It’s worth mentioning that Byram was among the leaders and played a solid game. Since scoring and returning to his natural side, Byram has looked more like himself at both ends.
Colorado returns home. They’ll have a chance to get this thing back on track in front of the home crowd inside Ball Arena on Wednesday against the St. Louis Blues. Those are valuable division points, so there’s added incentive. They’ll take the day off tomorrow and practice again on Tuesday.
